Improved railway-crossing



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.'

JOHN L. SHAW, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

IMPROVED RAILWAY-CROSSING.

Specification forming part of Letters PatentNo. 57,779, dated September 4, 1866.

To all whom it may-concern:

Be it known that I, J. L. SHAW, of Fort Wayne, in the county of Allen, State of lndiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railroad-Crossings; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference heilig had to the accompanying' drawings, making part of this specification, in Which- Figure l represents ground plan of' plates and bars, and Fig. 2 represents the section of the same along the line M N.

rlhe object of my invention, which I call combination crossing-plate -or frog]7 is to produce a combination of Wroughhiron plates and steel or wrought-iron bars, to be used at the crossings of the railroads, and so constructed and arranged Vas to ne able to Withstand an immense wear and tear and an enormous pressure from the railroad-trains, which destroy in a very short time the present arrangement ofthe railroad-crossin gs, consisting of boiler-iron plates and common rails or castiron crossings.

To enable others to lnake and use my invention, I will describe itsconstruetion and arran gem ent.

I take one-inch Wrought-iron plates, ten inches wide, A A, intended for one track, and at the joints, where similar plates, Al A', of the other track have to cross them, I bend them in such a Way as to form a kind of a bed, a a., Fig. 2, for the plates A A of the crossirack, thus lapping the plates one over the other at and under the angle formed bythe bars; The plates being securely riveted or Welded at the lapping, thus form a very stron gv bed under the point of the crossing of the bars,

Where the greatest jolting-pressure from the continuously-running trains is produced, and Where the present used boiler-plates generally give way.

I use steel or Wrought-iron solid bars, instead of rails, for the purpose, although common rails may be used also. The bars for the angles B B are made in shape of an L, and the bars for the interior square of the railroadcrossing are straight ones, these last being tongued out at their ends, and the tongues b b, Fig. 2, being Welded into the angle-bars,leav ing spaces b b for the passage of the Wheelflanges. The straight and the angle bars thus make continuous bars, crossing each other,`

and as if made of one piece. The bars are securely riveted to the bed-plates.

It will be perceived from the above description that, the bed-plates being lapped and riveted or welded, and the bars being Welded together and riveted to the plates, the Whole combination of crossing-plate or frog presents one solid piece of wroughtiron and steel, and can withstand, with tar greater ease and for a far longer time, the Wear and tear of the bars and the breaking of the bed-plates at the railroad-crossings.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The railway-crossin g consisting of the bedplates A, lapped and united as described, and used in combination with. the rails B, substantiallyr as described.

JOHN L. SHAW.

Witnesses J. B. TUEcHrN, J. R. HAYDEN. 

